Seattle @ Boston preview
Fenway Park
Last Meeting ( Aug 25, 2010 ) Seattle 3, Boston 5
Maybe an extra day of rest will help Boston Red Sox right-hander Josh Beckett snap out of his funk.
Following a rainout of Tuesday night's game, Beckett will take the ball in the first game of a day-night doubleheader against the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday afternoon at Fenway Park.
David Pauley, a one-time farmhand for the Red Sox, will start for the Mariners.
Having his scheduled start pushed back a day certainly can't hurt Beckett (3-3), who has been pounded in his last three starts. His ERA reach a stratospheric 6.67 while the opposition has mauled him to the tune of a .293 batting average against.
Signed to a four-year, $68 million contract extension in early April, Beckett has staggered through an injury-riddled season that has seen him spend more than two months on the disabled list.
Mind you, this is a pitcher who went 17-6 a year ago and 20-7 in Boston's World Series-winning campaign of 2007. Yet, at the moment, Beckett's stock is not much higher than that of Pauley, a former Red Sox pitcher who took five years to earn his first major league win with the Mariners.
In his last outing, he looked like the Beckett of old rather than an old Beckett, blanking the Los Angeles Angels on two hits through five innings. He came undone just as quickly, allowing four runs on four hits – three for extra bases – in the sixth inning and was gone in the seventh.
If a visit from the Mariners doesn’t soothe Beckett’s woes, maybe nothing will. He is 4-0 in his last five starts against Seattle, allowing just six earned runs.
Beckett faced the Mariners in his return from the disabled list on July 23, going 5 1/3 innings and allowing one run on five hits while striking out five and walking three.
He needs to do a better job of keeping the ball inside the park, having surrendered five home runs in his last four starts. The Mariners could help in that regard, having hit just 80 homers this season – the second-fewest in the AL.
Pauley (2-4) will be seeking his third consecutive victory. He had brief stops in the majors with Boston in 2006 and 2008 and the results were not pretty.
In nine career appearances with the Red Sox, Pauley went 0-3 and was drilled for 31 runs and 54 hits in just 28 1/3 innings.
He faced his former team on July 24 in Seattle and limited the Red Sox to one run on five hits in 5 2/3 innings. Pauley finally got his first major league victory on Aug. 13 at Cleveland and made it two in a row his last time out at Baltimore, allowing four runs and five hits in six innings.
Shortstop Marco Scutaro has hit safely in nine of the last 10 games and has four multi-hit contests in his last five for Boston, which is six games back of Tampa Bay and the New York Yankees in the American League East.